Scotiabank is supporting employees with elderly relatives by providing five back-up days for elder care.

The benefit provides in-home visits by personal support workers and was modelled after an existing program providing the bank’s employees with back-up childcare days, says Dominic Cole-Morgan, senior vice-president of total rewards.

“It was about understanding sources of potential mental-health [issues] and what the stressors were. We realized very quickly [that includes] caring for elderly relatives and we saw that as a gap in our [benefits offering] and something we were keen to fill.”

Read: Scotiabank increasing mental-health coverage, providing leadership training

Back-up care days are just one part of Scotiabank’s mental-health strategy, which also includes $10,000 in coverage and a wellness account where coverage for mental-health support can be extended more broadly to family members beyond dependants, such as parents, siblings and adult children living in Canada.

These benefits are assisting with the bank’s talent attraction and retention strategies in a difficult labour market, adds Cole-Morgan. “Prospective employees are taking a much broader look at entire organizations than previous generations and they’re looking beyond the normal compensation. They’re interested in compensation, but also in how [employers] are communicating their culture through benefits for equity-deserving groups.”

Read: Scotiabank enhancing parental leave benefits globally by 2025